.71.63      Baldwin,  James 


The  story  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
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THE  STORY 


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ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


FOR  YOUNG  READERS 


WERNER   SCHOOL   BOOK  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK          CHICAGO          BOSTON 


Baldwin's  Biographical  Booklet  Series, 

Biographical  Stories  of  Great  Americans 
for  Young  Americans 


JAMES  BALDWIN,  Ph.D. 

IN  these  biographical  stories  the  lives  of  great  Americans  are 
presented  In  such  a  manner  as  to  hold  the  attention  of  the 
youngest  reader.     In  lives  like  these  the  child  finds  the  most 
inspiring  examples  of  good  citizenship  and  true  patriotism. 

NOW  READY 
Four  Great  Americans  PRICE 

The  Story  of  George  Washington          .        .        .        .  lOc 

The  Story  of  Benjamin  Franklin         ....  lOc 

The  Story  of  Daniel  Webster lOc 

The  Story  of  Abraham  Lincoln  .....  lOc 
By  JAMES  BALDWIN 

Four  American  Patriots 

The  Story  of  Patrick  Henry lOc 

The  Story  of  Alexander  Hamilton       ....  lOc 

The  Story  of  Andrew  Jackson lOc 

The  Story  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant          .        .        .        .  lOc 
By  MRS.  ALMA  HOLMAN  BURTON 

The  Story  of  Henry  Clay       ....         .         .     lOc 

By  FRANCES  CRAVENS 

IN  PRES5 
Four  American  Naval   fleroes 

The  Story  of  Paul  Jones lOc 

The  Story  of  Oliver  H.  Perry lOc 

The  Story  of  David  G.  Farragut lOc 

The  Story  of  George  Dewey lOc 

By  MRS.  MABEL  BORTON  BEEBE 

Four  American  Poets 

The  Story  of  William  Cullen  Bryant       .  .        .        .     lOc 

The  Story  of  Henry  W.  Longfellow  lOc 

The  Story  of  John  Greenleaf  Whittier  .        .        .     lOc 

The  Story  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  .        .         .         lOc 
By  SHERWIN  CODY 

OTHER  VOLUMES   IN    PREPARATION 


Copyright,  1896,  by  WERNER  SCHOOL  BOOK  COMPANY 
Efjr  ILahfgilif  \Srtss 

R.  R.  DONNELLEY  *  SONS  COMPANY 
CHICAGO 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE  KENTUCKY  HOME ,5 

II.     WORK  AND  SORROW 10 

III.  THE  NEW  MOTHER 18 

IV.  SCHOOL  AND  BOOKS 20 

V.     LIFE  IN  THE  BACKWOODS 25 

VI.     THE  BOATMAN 28 

VII.     THE  FIRST  YEARS  IN  ILLINOIS 31 

VIII.     THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR 34 

IX.  IN  THE  LEGISLATURE    .        .        ;       .        ...        .37 

X.  POLITICS  AND  MARRIAGE         . ,      .        .        .        .        42 

XI.     CONGRESSMAN  AND  LAWYER 46 

XII.     THE  QUESTION  OF  SLAVERY 49 

XIII.  LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS       ......     54 

XIV.  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES        .        .        .58 
XV.  THE  END  OF  A  GREAT  LIFE        .....    62 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


I. — THE    KENTUCKY   HOME. 

Not  far  from  Hodgensville,  in  Kentucky,  there 
once  lived  a  man  whose  name  was  Thomas  Lin- 
coln. This  man  had  built  for  himself  a  little  log 
cabin  by  the  side  of  a  brook,  where  there  was  an 
ever-flowing  spring  of  water. 

There  was  but  one  room  in  this  cabin.  On  the 
side  next  to  the  brook  there  was  a  low  doorway  ; 
and  at  one  end  there  was  a  large  fireplace,  built 
of  rough  stones  and  clay. 

The  chimney  was  very  broad  at  the  bottom 
and  narrow  at  the  top.  It  was  ma(Je  of  clay, 
with  flat  stones  and  slender  sticks  laid  around 
the  outside  to  keep  it  from  falling  apart. 

In  the  wall,  on  one  side  of  the  fireplace,  there 
was  a  square  hole  for  a  window.  But  there  was 
no  glass  in  this  window.  In  the  summer  it  was 


6  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

left  open  all  the  time.  In  cold  weather  a  deer- 
skin, or  a  piece  of  coarse  cloth,  was  hung  over 
it  to  keep  out  the  wind  and  the  snow. 

At  night,  or  on  stormy  days,  the  skin  of  a 
bear  was  hung  across  the  doorway  ;  for  there  was 
no  door  on  hinges  to  be  opened  and  shut. 

There  was  no  ceiling  to  the  room.  But  the 
inmates  of  the  cabin,  by  looking  up,  could  see  the 
bare  rafters  and  the  rough  roof-boards,  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  himself  had  split  and  hewn. 

There  was  no  floor,  but  only  the  bare  ground 
that  had  been  smoothed  and  beaten  until  it  was 
as  level  and  hard  as  pavement. 

For  chairs  there  were  only  blocks  of  wood  and 
a  rude  bench  on  one  side  of  the  fireplace.  The 
bed  was  a  little  platform  of  poles,  on  which  were 
spread  the  furry  skins  of  wild  animals,  and  a 
patchwork  quilt  of  homespun  goods. 

In  this  poor  cabin,  on  the  i2th  of  February, 
1809,  a  baby  boy  was  born.  There  was  already 
one  child  in  the  family — a  girl,  two  years  old, 
whose  name  was  Sarah. 

The  little  boy  grew  and    became  strong  like 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  J 

other  babies,  and  his  parents  named  him  Abra- 
ham, after  his  grandfather,  who  had  been  killed 
by  the  Indians  many  years  before. 

When  he  was  old  enough  to  run  about,  he  liked 
to  play  under  the  trees  by  the  cabin  door.  Some- 
times he  would  go  with  his  little  sister  into  the 
woods  and  watch  the  birds  and  the  squirrels. 

He  had  no  playmates.  He  did  not  know  the 
meaning  of  toys  or  playthings.  But  he  was  a 
happy  child  and  had  many  pleasant  ways. 

Thomas  Lincoln,  the  father,  was  a  kind-hearted 
man,  very  strong  and  brave.  Sometimes  he 
would  take  the  child  on  his  knee  and  tell  him 
strange,  true  stories  of  the  great  forest,  and  of 
the  Indians  and  the  fierce  beasts  that  roamed 
among  the  woods  and  hills. 

For  Thomas  Lincoln  had  always  lived  on  the 
wild  frontier ;  and  he  would  rather  hunt  deer  and 
other  game  in  the  forest  than  do  anything  else. 
Perhaps  this  is  why  he  was  so  poor.  Perhaps 
this  is  why  he  was  content  to  live  in  the  little 
log  cabin  with  so  few  of  the  comforts  of  life. 

But  Nancy  Lincoln,  the  young  mother,  did  not 


8  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

complain.  She,  too,  had  grown  up  among  the 
rude  scenes  of  the  backwoods.  She  had  never 
known  better  things. 

And  yet  she  was  by  nature  refined  and  gentle  ; 
and  people  who  knew  her  said  that  she  was  very 
handsome.  She  was  a  model  housekeeper,  too  ; 
and  her  poor  log  cabin  was  the  neatest-and  best- 
kept  house  in  all  that  neighborhood. 

No  woman  could  be  busier  than  she.  She 
knew  how  to  spin  and  weave,  and  she  made  all 
the  clothing  for  her  family. 

She  knew  how  to  wield  the  ax  and  the  hoe  ; 
and  she  could  work  on  the  farm  or  in  the  garden 
when  her  help  was  needed. 

She  had  also  learned  how  to  shoot  with  a  rifle  ; 
and  she  could  bring  down  a  deer  or  other  wild 
game  with  as  much  ease  as  could  her  husband. 
And  when  the  game  was  brought  home,  she 
could  dress  it,  she  could  cook  the  flesh  for  food, 
and  of  the  skins  she  could  make  clothing  for  her 
husband  and  children. 

There  was  still  another  thing  that  she  could 
do — she  could  read  ;  and  she  read  alj  th,e  books 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  9 

that  she  could  get  hold  of.  She  taught  her  hus- 
band the  letters  of  the  alphabet  ;  and  she  showed 
him  how  to  write  his  name.  For  Thomas  Lin- 
coln had  never  gone  to  school,  and  he  had  never 
learned  how  to  read. 

As  soon  as  little  Abraham  Lincoln  was  old 
enough  to  understand,  his  mother  read  stories  to 
him  from  the  Bible.  Then,  while  he  was  still 
very  young,  she  taught  him  to  read  the  stories 
for  himself.  t 

The  neighbors  thought  it  a  wonderful  thing 
that  so  small  a  boy  could  read.  There  were  very 
few  of  them  who  could  do  as  much.  Few  of  them 
thought  it  of  any  great  use  to  learn  how  to  read. 

There  were  no  school-houses  in  that  part  of 
Kentucky  in  those  days,  and  of  course  there 
were  no  public  schools. 

One  winter  a  traveling  schoolmaster  came 
that  way.  He  got  leave  to  use  a  cabin  not  far 
from  Mr.  Lincoln's,  and  gave  notice  that  he 
would  teach  school  for  two  or  three  weeks.  The 
people  were  too  poor  to  pay  him  for  teaching 
longer. 


IO  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'. 

The  name  of  this  schoolmaster  was  Zachariah 
Riney. 

The  young  people  for  miles  around  flocked  to 
the  school.  Most  of  them  were  big  boys  and 
girls,  and  a  few  were  grown  up  young  men. 
The  only  little  child  was  Abraham  Lincoln,  and 
he  was  not  yet  five  years  old. 

There  was  only  one  book  studied  at  that 
school,  and  it  was  a  spelling-book.  It  had  some 
easy  reading  lessons  at  the  end,  but  these  were 
not  to  be  read  until  after  every  word  in  the  book 
had  been  spelled. 

You  can  imagine  how  the  big  boys  and  girls 
felt  when  Abraham  Lincoln  proved  that  he  could 
spell  and  read  better  than  any  of  them. 


II. — WORK  AND  SORROW. 

In  the  autumn,  just  after  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  eight  years  old,  his  parents  left  their  Ken- 
tucky home  and  moved  to  Spencer  county,  in 
Indiana. 

It  was  not  yet  a  year  since  Indiana  had  become 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  II 

a  state.  Land  could  be  bought  very  cheap,  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  thought  that  he  could  make  a  good 
living  there  for  his  family.  He  had  heard  also 
that  game  was  plentiful  in  the  Indiana  woods. 

It  was  not  more  than  seventy  or  eighty  miles 
from  the  old  home  to  the  new.  But  it  seemed  very 
far,  indeed,  and  it  was  a  good  many  days  before 
the  slow-moving  wagon  reached  its  journey's  end. 
Over  a  part  of  the  way  there  was  no  road,  and 
the  movers  had  to  cut  a  path  for  themselves 
through  the  thick  woods. 

o 

The  boy,  Abraham,  was  tall  and  very  strong 
for  his  age.  He  already  knew  how  to  handle  an 
ax,  and  few  men  could  shoot  with  a  rifle  better 
than  he.  He  was  his  father's  helper  in  all  kinds 
of  work. 

It  was  in  November  when  the  family  came  to 
the  place  which  was  to  be  their  future  home. 
Winter  was  near  at  hand.  There  was  no  house, 
nor  shelter  of  any  kind.  What  would  become  of 
the  patient,  tired  mother,  and  the  gentle  little 
sister,  who  had  borne  themselves  so  bravely 
during  the  long,  hard  journey  ? 


12  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

No  sooner  had  the  horses  been  loosed  from 
the  wagon  than  Abraham  and  his  father  were  at 
work  with  their  axes.  In  a  short  time  they  had 
built  what  they  called  a  "  camp." 

This  camp  was  but  a  rude  shed,  made  of  poles 
and  thatched  with  leaves  and  branches.  It  was 
enclosed  on  three  sides,  so  that  the  chill  winds 
or  the  driving  rains  from  the  north  and  west  could 
not  enter.  The  fourth  side  was  left  open,  and  in 
front  of  it  a  fire  was  built. 

This  fire  was  kept  burning  all  the  time.  It 
warmed  the  interior  of  the  camp.  A  big  iron 
kettle  was  hung  over  it  by  means  of  a  chain  and 
pole,  and  in  this  kettle  the  fat  bacon,  the  venison, 
the  beans,  and  the  corn  were  boiled  for  the  fam- 
ily's dinner  and  supper.  In  the  hot  ashes  the 
good  mother  baked  luscious  "  corn  dodgers," 
and  sometimes,  perhaps,  a  few  potatoes. 

In  one  end  of  the  camp  were  the  few  cooking 
utensils  and  little  articles  of  furniture  which  even 
the  poorest  house  cannot  do  without.  The  rest 
of  the  space  was  the  family  sitting-room  and 
bed-room.  The  floor  was  covered  with  leaves, 


THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  13 

and  on  these  were  spread  the  furry  skins  of  deer 
and  bears,  and  other  animals. 

It  was  in  this  camp  that  the  family  spent  their 
first  winter  in  Indiana.  How  very  cold  and 
dreary  that  winter  must  have  been !  Think  of 
the  stormy  nights,  of  the  shrieking  wind,  of  the 
snow  and  the  sleet  and  the  bitter  frost !  It  is 
not  much  wonder  if,  before  the  spring  months 
came,  the  mother's  strength  began  to  fail. 

But  it  was'  a  busy  winter  for  Thomas  Lincoln. 
Every  day  his  ax  was  heard  in  the  woods.  He 
was  clearing  the  ground,  so  that  in  the  spring  it 
might  be  planted  with  corn  and  vegetables. 

He  was  hewing  logs  for  his  new  house  ;  for  he 
had  made  up  his  mind,  now,  to  have  something 
better  than  a  cabin. 

The  woods  were  full  of  wild  animals.  It 
was  easy  for  Abraham  and  his  father  to  kill 
plenty  of  game,  and  thus  keep  the  family  sup- 
plied \vith  fresh  meat. 

And  Abraham,  with  chopping  and  hewing 
and  hunting  and  trapping,  was  very  busy  for  a 
little  boy.  He  had  but  little  time  to  play  ;  and, 


14  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

since  he  had  no  playmates,  we  cannot  know 
whether  he  even  wanted  to  play. 

With  his  mother,  he  read  over  and  over  the 
Bible  stories  which  both  of  them  loved  so  well. 
And,  during  the  cold,  stormy  days,  when  he 
could  not  leave  the  camp,  his  mother  taught  him 
how  to  write. 

In  the  spring  the  new  house  was  raised.  It 
was  only  a  hewed  log  house,  with  one  room  be- 
low and  a  loft  above.  But  it  was  so  much  bet- 
ter than  the  old  cabin  in  Kentucky  that  it  seemed 
like  a  palace. 

The  family  had  become  so  tired  of  living  in 
the  "  camp,"  that  they  moved  into  the  new  house 
before  the  floor  was  laid,  or  any  door  hung  at 
t\he  doorway. 

Then  came  the  plowing  and  the  planting  and 
the  hoeing.  Everybody  was  busy  from  day- 
light to  dark.  There  were  so  many  trees  and 
stumps  that  there  was  but  little  room  for  the 
corn  to  grow. 

The  summer  passed,  and  autumn  came.  Then 
the  poor  mother's  strength  gave  out.  She  could 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  15 

no  longer  go  about  her  household  duties.  She 
had  to  depend  more  and  more  upon  the  help 
that  her  children  could  give  her. 

At  length  she  became  too  feeble  to  leave  her 
bed.  She  called  her  boy  to  her  side.  She  put 
her  arms  about  him  and  said  :  "  Abraham,  I  am 
going  away  from  you,  and  you  will  never  see  me 
again.  I  know  that  you  will  always  be  good 
and  kind  to  your  sister  and  father.  Try  to  live 
as  I  have  taught  you,  and  to  love  your  heavenly 
Father." 

On  the  5th  of  October  she  fell  asleep,  never  to 
wake  again. 

Under  a  big  sycamore  tree,  half  a  mile  from 
the  house,  the  neighbors  dug  the  grave  for  the 
mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  And  there  they 
buried  her  in  silence  and  great  sorrow. 

There  was  no  minister  there  to  conduct  relig- 
ious services.  In  all  that  new  country  there  was 
no  church  ;  and  no  holy  man  could  be  found  to 
speak  words  of  comfort  and  hope  to  the  grieving 
ones  around  the  grave. 

But  the  boy,  Abraham,  remembered  a  travel- 


I  6  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

ing  preacher,  whom  they  had  known  in  Ken- 
tucky. The  name  of  this  preacher  was  David 
Elkin.  If  he  would  only  come  ! 

And  so,  after  all  was  over,  the  lad  sat  down 
and  wrote  a  letter  to  David  Elkin.  He  was  only 
a  child  nine  years  old,  but  he  believed  that  the 
good  man  would  remember  his  poor  mother,  and 
come. 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  write  a  letter.  Paper 
and  ink  were  not  things  of  common  use,  as  they 
are  with  us.  A  pen  had  to  be  made  from  the 
quill  of  a  goose. 

But  at  last  the  letter  was  finished  and  sent 
away.  How  it  was  carried  I  do  not  know  ;  for 
the  mails  were  few  and  far  between  in  those 
days,  and  postage  was  very  high.  It  is  more 
than  likely  that  some  friend,  who  was  going  into 
Kentucky,  undertook  to  have  it  finally  handed 
to  the  good  preacher. 

Months  passed.  The  leaves  were  again  on  the 
trees.  The  wild  flowers  were  blossoming  in  the 
woods.  At  last  the  preacher  came. 

He  had  ridden  a  hundred  miles  on  horseback  ; 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  }J 

he  had  forded  rivers,  and  traveled  through  path- 
less woods  ;  he  had  dared  the  dangers  of  the  wild 
forest :  all  in  answer  to  the  lad's  beseeching  letter. 

He  had  no  hope  of  reward,  save  that  which 
is  given  to  every  man  who  does  his  duty.  He 
did  not  know  that  there  would  come  a  time 
when  the  greatest  preachers  in  the  world  would 
envy  him  his  sad  task. 

And  now  the  friends  and  neighbors  gathered 
again  under  the  great  sycamore  tree.  The  fu- 
neral sermon  was  preached.  Hymns  were  sung. 
A  prayer  was  offered.  Words  of  comfort  and 
sympathy  were  spoken. 

From  that  time  forward  the  mind  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  filled  with  a  high  and  noble  pur- 
pose. In  his  earliest  childhood  his  mother 
had  taught  him  to  love  truth  and  justice,  to  be 
honest  and  upright  among  men,  and  to  reverence 
God.  These  lessons  he  never  forgot. 

Long  afterward,  when  the  world  had  come  to 
know  him  as  a  very  great  man,  he  said  :  "  All 
that  I  am,  or  hope  to  be,  I  owe  to  my  angel 
inother." 


1 8  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


III. — THE  NEW  MOTHER. 

The  log  house,  which  Abraham  Lincoln  called 
his  home,  was  now  more  lonely  and  cheerless 
than  before.  The  sunlight  of  his  mother's  pres- 
ence had  gone  out  of  it  forever. 

His  sister  Sarah,  twelve  years  old,  was  the 
housekeeper  and  cook.  His  father  had  not  yet 
found  time  to  lay  a  floor  in  the  house,  or  to  hang 
a  door.  There  were  great  crevices  between  the 
logs,  through  which  the  wind  and  the  rain  drifted 
on  every  stormy  day.  There  was  not  much  com- 
fort in  such  a  house. 

But  the  lad  was  never  idle.  In  the  long  win- 
ter days,  when  there  was  no  work  to  be  done,  he 
spent  the  time  in  reading  or  in  trying  to  improve 
his  writing. 

There  were  very  few  books  in  the  cabins  of 
that  backwoods  settlement.  But  if  Abraham 
Lincoln  heard  of  one,  he  could  not  rest  till  he 
nad  borrowed  it  and  read  it. 

Another  summer  passed,  and  then  another 
winter.  Then,  one  day,  Mr.  Lincoln  went  on  a 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  ig 

visit  to  Kentucky,  leaving  his  two  children  and 
their  cousin,  Dennis  Hanks,  at  home  to  care  for 
the  house  and  the  farm. 

I  do  not  know  how  long  he  stayed  away,  but 
it  could  not  have  been  many  weeks.  One  eve- 
ning, the  children  were  surprised  to  see  a  four- 
horse  wagon  draw  up  before  the  door. 

Their  father  was  in  the  wagon  ;  and  by  his 
side  was  a  kind-faced  woman  ;  and,  sitting  on 
the  straw  at  the  bottom  of  the  wagon-bed,  there 
were  three  well-dressed  children — two  girls  and 
a  boy. 

And  there  were  some  grand  things  in  the 
wagon,  too.  There  were  six  split -bottomed 
chairs,  a  bureau  with  drawers,  a  wooden  chest, 
and  a  feather  bed.  All  these  things  were  very 
wonderful  to  the  lad  and  lassie  who  had  never 
known  the  use  of  such  luxuries. 

"  Abraham  and  Sarah,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  he 
leaped  from  the  wagon,  "  I  have  brought  you  a 
new  mother  and  a  new  brother  and  two  new 
sisters." 

The   new  mother  greeted  them  very    kindly, 


2O  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

and,  no  doubt,  looked  with  gentle  pity  upon 
them.  They  were  barefooted  ;  their  scant  cloth- 
ing was  little  more  than  rags  and  tatters  ;  they 
did  not  look  much  like  her  own  happy  children, 
whom  she  had  cared  for  so  well. 

And  now  it  was  not  long  until  a  great  change 
was  made  in  the  Lincoln  home.  A  floor  was 
laid,  a  door  was  hung,  a  window  was  made,  the 
crevices  between  the  logs  were  daubed  with  clay. 

The  house  was  furnished  in  fine  style,  with  the 
chairs  and  the  bureau  and  the  feather  bed.  The 
kind,  new  mother  brought  sunshine  and  hope 
into  the  place  that  had  once  been  so  cheerless. 

With  the  young  lad,  Dennis  Hanks,  there  were 
now  six  children  in  the  family.  But  all  were 
treated  with  the  same  kindness  ;  all  had  the  same 
motherly  care.  And  so,  in  the  midst  of  much 
hard  work,  there  were  many  pleasant  days  for 
them  all. 


IV.— SCHOOL  AND  BOOKS. 

Not  very  long  after  this,  the  people  of  the 
neighborhood  made  up   their   minds  that  they 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  21 

must  have  a  school-house.  And  so,  one  day 
after  harvest,  the  men  met  together  and  chopped 
down  trees,  and  built  a  little  low-roofed  log- 
cabin  to  serve  for  that  purpose. 

If  you  could  see  that  cabin  you  would  think  it 
a  queer  kind  of  school-house.  There  was  no 
floor.  There  was  only  one  window,  and  in  it 
were  strips  of  greased  paper  pasted  across,  in- 
stead of  glass.  There  were  no  desks,  but  only 
rough  benches  made  of  logs  split  in  halves.  In 
one  end  of  the  room  was  a  huge  fireplace  ;  at  the 
other  end  was  the  low  doorway. 

The  first  teacher  was  a  man  whose  name  was 
Azel  Dorsey.  The  term  of  school  was  very 
short ;  for  the  settlers  could  not  afford  to  pay 
him  much.  It  was  in  mid-winter,  for  then  there 
was  no  work  for  the  big  boys  to  do  at  home. 

And  the  big  boys,  as  well  as  the  girls  and  the 
smaller  boys,  for  miles  around,  came  in  to  learn 
what  they  could  from  Azel  Dorsey.  The  most 
of  the  children  studied  only  spelling  ;  but  some 
of  the  larger  ones  learned  reading  and  writing 
and  arithmetic. 


22  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

There  were  not  very  many  scholars,  for  the 
houses  in  that  new  settlement  were  few  and  far 
apart.  School  began  at  an  early  hour  in  the 
morning,  and  did  not  close  until  the  sun  was 
down. 

Just  how  Abraham  Lincoln  stood  in  his  classes 
I  do  not  know  ;  but  I  must  believe  that  he  stud- 
ied hard  and  did  everything  as  well  as  he  could. 
In  the  arithmetic  which  he  used,  he  wrote  these 
lines  : 

"Abraham  Lincoln, 
His  hand  and  pen, 
He  will  be  good, 
But  God  knows  when." 

In  a  few  weeks,  Azel  Dorsey's  school  came  to 
a  close ;  and  Abraham  Lincoln  was  again  as 
busy  as  ever  about  his  father's  farm.  After  that 
he  attended  school  only  two  or  three  short 
terms.  If  all  his  school-days  were  put  together 
they  would  not  make  a  twelve-month. 

But  he  kept  on  reading  and  studying  at  home. 
His  step-mother  said  of  him:  "He  read  every- 
thing he  could  lay  his  hands  on.  When  he  came 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  2$ 

across  a  passage  that  struck  him,  he  would  write 
it  down  on  boards,  if  he  had  no  paper,  and  keep 
it  until  he  had  got  paper.  Then  he  would  copy 
it,  look  at  it,  commit  it  to  memory,  and  repeat  it." 

Among  the  books  that  he  read  were  the  Bible, 
the  Pilgrims  Progress,  and  the  poems  of  Rob- 
ert Burns.  One  day  he  walked  a  long  distance 
to  borrow  a  book  of  a  farmer.  This  book  was 
Weems's  Life  of  Washington.  He  read  as 
much  as  he  could  while  walking  home. 

By  that  time  it  was  dark,  and  so  he  sat  down 
by  the  chimney  and  read  by  firelight  until  bed- 
time. Then  he  took  the  book  to  bed  with  him 
in  the  loft,  and  read  by  the  light  of  a  tallow 
candle. 

In  an  hour  the  candle  burned  out.  He  laid 
the  book  in  a  crevice  between  two  of  the  logs  of 
the  cabin,  so  that  he  might  begin  reading  again 
as  soon  as  it  was  daylight. 

But  in  the  night  a  storm  came  up.  The  rain 
was  blown  in,  and  the  book  was  wet  through 
and  through. 

In  the  morning,  when  Abraham  awoke,  he  saw 


24  THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

what  had  happened.  He  dried  the  leaves  as  well 
as  he  could,  and  then  finished  reading  the  book. 

As  soon  as  he  had  eaten  his  breakfast,  he  hur- 
ried to  carry  the  book  to  its  owner.  He  ex- 
plained how  the  accident  had  happened. 

"  Mr.  Crawford,"  he  said,  "  I  am  willing  to  pay 
you  for  the  book,  I  have  no  money  ;  but,  if  you 
will  let  me,  I  will  work  for  you  until  I  have  made 
its  price." 

Mr.  Crawford  thought  that  the  book  was 
worth  seventy-five  cents,  and  that  Abraham's 
work  would  be  worth  about  twenty-five  cents  a 
day.  And  so  the  lad  helped  the  farmer  gather 
corn  for  three  days,  and  thus  became  the  owner 
of  the  delightful  book. 

He  read  the  story  of  Washington  many  times 
over.  He  carried  the  book  with  him  to  the  field, 
and  read  it  while  he  was  following  the  plow. 

From  that  time,  Washington  was  the  one  great 
hero  whom  he  admired.  Why  could  not  he 
model  his  own  life  after  that  of  Washington  ? 
Why  could  not  he  also  be  a  doer  of  great  things 
for  his  country  ? 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  25 

V. — LIFE  IN  THE  BACKWOODS. 

Abraham  Lincoln  now  set  to  work  with  a  will 
to  educate  himself.  His  father  thought  that  he 
did  not  need  to  learn  anything  more.  He  did 
not  see  that  there  was  any  good  in  book-learning. 
If  a  man  could  read  and  write  and  cipher,  what 
more  was  needed  ? 

But  the  good  step-mother  thought  differently  ; 
and  when  another  short  term  of  school  began  in 
the  little  log  school-house,  all  six  of  the  children 
from  the  Lincoln  cabin  were  among  the  scholars. 

In  a  few  weeks,  however,  the  school  had 
closed  ;  and  the  three  boys  were  again  hard  at 
work,  chopping  and  grubbing  in  Mr.  Lincoln's 
clearings.  They  were  good-natured,  jolly  young 
fellows,  and  they  lightened  their  labor  with 
many  a  joke  and  playful  prank. 

Many  were  the  droll  stories  with  which  Abra- 
ham amused  his  two  companions.  Many  were 
the  puzzling  questions  that  he  asked.  Some- 
times in  the  evening,  with  the  other  five  children 
around  him,  he  would  declaim  some  piece  that 


26  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

he  had  learned  ;  or  he  would  deliver  a  speech 
of  his  own  on  some  subject  of  common  interest. 

If  you  could  see  him  as  he  then  appeared,  you 
would  hardly  think  that  such  a  boy  would  ever 
become  one  of  the  most  famous  men  of  history. 
On  his  head  he  wore  a  cap  made  from  the  skin 
of  a  squirrel  or  a  raccoon.  Instead  of  trousers 
of  cloth,  he  wore  buckskin  breeches,  the  legs  of 
which  were  many  inches  too  short.  His  shirt 
was  of  deerskin  in  the  winter,  and  of  homespun 
tow  in  the  summer.  Stockings  he  had  none. 
His  shoes  were  of  heavy  cowhide,  and  were 
worn  only  on  Sundays  or  in  very  cold  weather. 

The  family  lived  in  such  a  way  as  to  need  very 
little  money.  Their  bread  was  made  of  corn 
meal.  Their  meat  was  chiefly  the  flesh  of  wild 
game  found  in  the  forest. 

Pewter  plates  and  wooden  trenchers  were 
used  on  the  table.  The  tea  and  coffee  cups  were  of 
painted  tin.  There  was  no  stove,  and  all  the  cook- 
ing was  done  on  the  hearth  of  the  big  fireplace. 

But  poverty  was  no  hindrance  to  Abraham 
Lincoln.  He  kept  on  with  his  reading  and  his 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  27 

studies  as  best  he  could.  Sometimes  he  would 
go  to  the  little  village  of  Gentryville,  near  by,  to 
spend  an  evening.  He  would  tell  so  many 
jokes  and  so  many  funny  stories,  that  all  the 
people  would  gather  round  him  to  listen. 

When  he  was  sixteen  years  old  he  went  one 
day  to  Booneville,  fifteen  miles  away,  to  attend 
a  trial  in  court.  He  had  never  been  in  court  be- 
fore. He  listened  with  great  attention  to  all  that 
was  said.  When  the  lawyer  for  the  defense 
made  his  speech,  the  youth  was  so  full  of  delight 
that  he  could  not  contain  himself. 

He  arose  from  his  seat,  walked  across  the  court- 
room, and  shook  hands  with  the  lawyer.  "That 
was  the  best  speech  I  ever  heard,"  he  said. 

He  was  tall  and  very  slim  ;  he  was  dressed  in 
a  jeans  coat  and  buckskin  trousers  ;  his  feet 
were  bare.  It  must  have  been  a  strange  sight  to 
see  him  thus  complimenting  an  old  and  practiced 
lawyer. 

From  that  time,  one  ambition  seemed  to  fill 
his  mind.  He  wanted  to  be  a  lawyer  and  make 
great  speeches  in  court.  He  walked  twelve  miles 


28  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

barefooted,  to  borrow  a  copy  of  the  laws  of  In- 
diana.    Day  and  night  he  read  and  studied. 

"  Some  day  I  shall  be  President  of  the  United 
States,"  he  said  to  some  of  his  young  friends. 
And  this  he  said  not  as  a  joke,  but  in  the  firm 
belief  that  it  would  prove  to  be  true. 


.    VI. — THE  BOATMAN. 

One  of  Thomas  Lincoln's  friends  owned  a 
ferry-boat  on  the  Ohio  River.  It  was  nothing 
but  a  small  rowboat,  and  would  carry  only  three 
or  four  people  at  a  time.  This  man  wanted  to 
employ  some  one  to  take  care  of  his  boat  and 
to  ferry  people  across  the  river. 

Thomas  Lincoln  was  in  need  of  money  ;  and 
so  he  arranged  with  his  friend  for  Abraham  to  do 
this  work.  The  wages  of  the  young  man  were 
to  be  $2.5.0  a  week.  But  all  the  money  was  to  be 
his  father's. 

One  day  two  strangers  came  to  the  landing. 
They  wanted  to  take  passage  on  a  steamboat 
that  was  coming  down  the  river.  The  ferry-boy 


THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  29 

signalled  to  the  steamboat  and  it  stopped  in  mid- 
stream. Then  the  boy  rowed  out  with  the  two 
passengers,  and  they  were  taken  on  board. 

Just  as  he  was  turning  towards  the  shore  again, 
each  of  the  strangers  tossed  a  half-dollar  into  his 
boat.  He  picked  the  silver  up  and  looked  at  it. 
Ah,  how  rich  he  felt !  He  had  never  had  so  much 
money  at  one  time.  And  he  had  gotten  all  for 
a  few  minutes'  labor ! 

When  winter  came  on,  there  were  fewer  people 
who  wanted  to  cross  the  river.  So,  at  last,  the 
ferry-boat  was  tied  up,  and  Abraham  Lincoln 
went  back  to  his  father's  home. 

He  was  now  nineteen  years  old.  He  was  very 
tall — nearly  six  feet  four  inches  in  height.  He 
was  as  strong  as  a  young  giant.  He  could 
jump  higher  and  farther,  and  he  could  run  faster, 
than  any  of  his  fellows  ;  and  there  was  no  one, 
far  or  near,  who  could  lay  him  on  his  back. 

Although  he  had  always  lived  in  a  community 
of  rude,  rough  people,  he  had  no  bad  habits.  He 
used  no  tobacco  ;  he  did  not  drink  strong  liquor  ; 
no  profane  word  ever  passed  his  lips. 


30  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

He  was  good-natured  at  all  times,  and  kind  to 
every  one. 

During  that  winter,  Mr.  Gentry,  the  store- 
keeper in  the  village,  had  bought  a  good  deal  of 
corn  and  pork.  He  intended,  in  the  spring,  to 
load  this  on  a  flatboat  and  send  it  down  the  river 
to  New  Orleans. 

In  looking  about  for  a  captain  to  take  charge 
of  the  boat,  he  happened  to  think  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  He  knew  that  he  could  trust  the  young 
man.  And  so  a  bargain  was  soon  made.  Abra- 
ham agreed  to  pilot  the  boat  to  New  Orleans 
and  to  market  the  produce  there  ;  and  Mr.  Gen- 
try was  to  pay  his  father  eight  dollars  and  a  half 
a  month  for  his  services. 

As  soon  as  the  ice  had  well  melted  from  the 
river,  the  voyage  was  begun.  Besides  Captain 
Lincoln  there  was  only  one  man  in  the  crew,  and 
that  was  a  son  of  Mr.  Gentry's. 

The  voyage  was  a  long  and  weary  one,  but  at 
last  the  two  boatmen  reached  the  great  southern 
city.  Here  they  saw  many  strange  things  of 
which  they  had  never  heard  before.  But  they 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  31 

soon  sold  their  cargo  and  boat,  and  then  returned 
home  on  a  steamboat. 

To  Abraham  Lincoln  the  world  was  now  very 
different  from  what  it  had  seemed  before.  He 
longed  to  be  away  from  the  narrow  life  in  the 
woods  of  Spencer  county.  He  longed  to  be  do- 
ing something  for  himself — to  be  making  for  him- 
self a  fortune  and  a  name. 

But  then  he  remembered  his  mother's  teach- 
ings when  he  sat  on  her  knee  in  the  old  Ken- 
tucky home,  "  Always  do  right."  He  remem- 
bered her  last  words,  "  I  know  you  will  be  kind 
to  your  father." 

And  so  he  resolved  to  stay  with  his  father,  to 
work  for  him,  and  to  give  him  all  his  earnings 
until  he  was  twenty-one  years  old. 


VII. — THE  FIRST  YEARS  IN  ILLINOIS. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1830,  Thomas  Lincoln 
sold  his  farm  in  Indiana,  and  the  whole  family 
moved  to  Illinois.  The  household  goods  were 
put  in  a  wagon  drawn  by  four  yoke  of  oxen. 


32  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  kind  step-mother  and  her  daughters  rode 
also  in  the  wagon. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  with  a  long  whip  in  his  hand, 
trudged  through  the  mud  by  the  side  of  the  road 
and  guided  the  oxen.  Who  that  saw  him  thus 
going  into  Illinois  would  have  dreamed  that  he 
would  in  time  become  that  state's  greatest  citizen  ? 

The  journey  was  a  long  and  hard  one  ;  but  in 
two  weeks  they  reached  Decatur,  where  they 
had  decided  to  make  their  new  home. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  now  over  twenty-one 
years  old.  He  was  his  own  man.  But  he  stayed 
with  his  father  that  spring.  He  helped  him 
fence  his  land ;  he  helped  him  plant  his  corn. 

But  his  father  had  no  money  to  give  him. 
The  young  man's  clothing  was  all  worn  out,  and 
he  had  nothing  with  which  to  buy  any  more. 
What  should  he  do  ? 

Three  miles  from  his  father's  cabin  there  lived 
a  thrifty  woman,  whose  name  was  Nancy  Miller. 
Mrs.  Miller  owned  a  flock  of  sheep,  and  in'  her 
house  there  were  a  spinning-wheel  and  a  loom 
that  were,  always  busy.  And  so  you  must  know 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


33 


that  she  wove  a  great  deal  of  jeans  and  home- 
made cloth. 

Abraham  Lincoln  bargained  with  this  woman 
to  make  him  a  pair  of  trousers.  He  agreed  that 
for  each  yard  of  cloth  required,  he  would  split  for 
her  four  hundred  rails. 

He  had  to  split  fourteen  hundred  rails  in  all  ; 
but  he  worked  so  fast  that  he  had  finished  them 
before  the  trousers  were  ready. 

The  next  April  saw  young  Lincoln  piloting  an- 
other flatboat  down  the  Mississippi  to  New  Or- 
leans. His  companion  this  time  was  his  mother's 
relative,  John  Hanks.  This  time  he  stayed  longer 
in  New  Orleans,  and  he  saw  some  things  which 
he  had  barely  noticed  on  his  first  trip. 

He  saw  gangs  of  slaves  being  driven  through 
the  streets.  He  visited  the  slave-market,  and 
saw  women  and  girls  sold  to  the  highest  bidder 
like  so  many  cattle. 

The  young  man,  who  would  not  be  unkind  to 
any  living  being,  was  shocked  by  these  sights. 
"  His  heart  bled  ;  he  was  mad,  thoughtful,  sad, 
and  depressed." 


34  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

He  said  to  John  Hanks,  "  If  I  ever  get  a  chance 
to  hit  that  institution,  I'll  hit  it  hard,  John." 

He  came  back  from  New  Orleans  in  July.  Mr. 
Offut,  the  owner  of  the  flatboat  which  he  had 
taken  down,  then  employed  him  to  act  as  clerk 
in  a  country  store  which  he  had  at  New  Salem. 

New  Salem  was  a  little  town  not  far  from 
Springfield. 

Young  Lincoln  was  a  good  salesman,  and  all 
the  customers  liked  him.  Mr.  Offut  declared 
that  the  young  man  knew  more  than  anyone  else 
in  the  United  States,  and  that  he  could  outrun 
and  outwrestle  any  man  in  the  county. 

But  in  the  spring  of  the  next  year  Mr.  Offut 
failed.  The  store  was  closed,  and  Abraham  Lin- 
coln was  out  of  employment  again. 


VIII.— THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR. 

There  were  still  a  good  many  Indians  in  the 
West.  The  Sac  Indians  had  lately  sold  their 
lands  in  northern  Illinois  to  the  United  States. 
They  had  then  moved  across  the  Mississippi 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  35 

river,  to  other  lands  that  had  been  set  apart  for 
them. 

But  they  did  not  like  their  new  home.  At  last 
they  made  up  their  minds  to  go  back  to  their 
former  hunting-grounds.  They  were  led  by  a 
chief  whose  name  was  Black  Hawk  ;  and  they 
began  by  killing  the  white  settlers  and  burning 
their  houses  and  crops. 

This  was  in  the  spring  of  1832. 

The  whole  state  of  Illinois  was  in  alarm.  The 
governor  called  for  volunteers  to  help  the  United 
States  soldiers  drive  the  Indians  back. 

Abraham  Lincoln  enlisted.  His  company 
elected  him  captain. 

He  did  not  know  anything  about  military  tac- 
tics. He  did  not  know  how  to  give  orders  to  his 
men.  But  he  did  the  best  that  he  could,  and 
learned  a  great  deal  by  experience. 

His  company  marched  northward  and  west- 
ward until  they  came  to  the  Mississippi  river.  But 
they  did  not  meet  any  Indians,  and  so  there  was 
no  fighting. 

The  young  men  under  Captain  Lincoln  were 


3b  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

rude  fellows  from  the  prairies  and  backwoods. 
They  were  rough  in  their  manners,  and  hard 
to  control.  But  they  had  very  high  respect  for 
their  captain. 

Perhaps  this  was  because  of  his  great  strength, 
and  his  skill  in  wrestling  ;  for  he  could  put  the 
roughest  and  strongest  of  them  on  their  backs. 
Perhaps  it  was  because  he  was  good-natured  and 
kind,  and,  at  the  same  time,  very  firm  and  de- 
cisive. 

In  a  few  weeks  the  time  for  which  the  com- 
pany had  enlisted  came  to  an  end.  The  young 
men  were  tired  of  being  soldiers  ;  and  so  all,  ex- 
cept Captain  Lincoln  and  one  man,  were  glad  to 
hurry  home. 

But  Captain  Lincoln  never  gave  up  anything 
half  done.  He  enlisted  again.  This  time  he 
was  a  private  in  a  company  of  mounted  rangers. 

The  main  camp  of  the  volunteers  and  soldiers 
was  on  the  banks  of  the  Rock  river,  in  northern 
Illinois. 

Here,  one  day,  Abraham  Lincoln  saw  a  young 
lieutenant  of  the  United  States  army,  whose 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  37 

name  was  Jefferson  Davis.  It  is  not  likely 
that  the  fine  young  officer  noticed  the  rough-clad 
ranger  ;  but  they  were  to  know  more  of  each 
other  at  a  future  time. 

Three  weeks  after  that  the  war  was  at  an  end. 
The  Indians  had  been  beaten  in  a  battle,  and 
Black  Hawk  had  been  taken  prisoner. 

But  Abraham  Lincoln  had  not  been  in  any 
fight.  He  had  not  seen  any  Indians,  except 
peaceable  ones. 

In  June  his  company  was  mustered  out,  and 
he  returned  home  to  New  Salem. 

He  was  then  twenty-three  years  old. 


IX. — IN  THE  LEGISLATURE. 

When  Abraham  Lincoln  came  back  to  New 
Salem  it  was  nearly  time  for  the  state  election. 
The  people  of  the  town  and  neighborhood  wanted 
to  send  him  to  the  legislature,  and  he  agreed  to 
be  a  candidate. 

It  was  at  Pappsville,  twelve  miles  from  Spring- 
field, that  he  made  his  first  campaign  speech. 


38  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

He  said  :    "  Gentlemen  and  fellow-citizens — 

"  I  presume  you  all  know  who  I  am. 

"  I  am  humble  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  have  been 
solicited  by  my  friends  to  become  a  candidate 
for  the  legislature. 

"  My  politics  are  short  and  sweet. 

"  I  am  in  favor  of  a  national  bank  ;  am  in  favor 
of  the  internal  improvement  system,  and  a  high 
protective  tariff. 

"  These  are  my  sentiments  and  political  prin- 
ciples. If  elected,  I  shall  be  thankful  ;  if  not,  it 
will  be  all  the  same." 

He  was  a  tall,  gawky,  rough-looking  fellow. 
He  was  dressed  in  a  coarse  suit  of  homespun, 
much  the  worse  for  wear. 

A  few  days  after  that,  he  made  a  longer  and 
better  speech  at  Springfield. 

But  he  was  not  elected. 

About  this  time  a  worthless  fellow,  whose 
name  was  Berry,  persuaded  Mr.  Lincoln  to  help 
him  buy  a  store  in  New  Salem.  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  no  money,  but  he  gave  his  notes  for  the 
value  of  half  the  goods. 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  39 

The  venture  was  not  a  profitable  one.  In  a 
few  months  the  store  was  sold  ;  but  Abraham 
did  not  receive  a  dollar  for  it.  It  was  six  years 
before  he  was  able  to  pay  off  the  notes  which  he 
had  given. 

During  all  this  time  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  give 
up  the  idea  of  being  a  lawyer.  He  bought  a 
second-hand  copy  of  Blackstones  Commentaries 
at  auction.  He  studied  it  so  diligently  that  in 
a  few  weeks  he  had  mastered  the  whole  of  it. 

He  bought  an  old  form-book,  and  began  to 
draw  up  contracts,  deeds,  and  all  kinds  of  legal 
papers. 

He  would  often  walk  to  Springfield,  fourteen 
miles  away,  to  borrow  a  book  ;  and  he  would 
master  thirty  or  forty  pages  of  it  while  return- 
ing home. 

Soon  he  began  to  practice  in  a  small  way  be- 
fore justices  of  the  peace  and  country  juries. 
He  was  appointed  postmaster  at  New  Salem,  but 
so  little  mail  came  to  the  place  that  the  office 
was  soon  discontinued. 

He    was   nearly    twenty-five    years  old.     But, 


4O  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

with  all  his  industry,  he  could  hardly  earn  money 
enough  to  pay  for  his  board  and  clothing. 

He  had  learned  a  little  about  surveying  while 
living  in  Indiana.  He  now  took  up  the  study 
again,  and  was  soon  appointed  deputy  surveyor 
of  Sangamon  county. 

He  was  very  skilful  as  a  surveyor.  Although 
his  chain  was  only  a  grape-vine,  he  was  very  ac- 
curate and  never  made  mistakes. 

The  next  year  he  was  again  a  candidate  for 
the  legislature.  This  time  the  people  were  ready 
to  vote  for  him,  and  he  was  elected.  It  was  no 
small  thing  for  so  young  a  man  to  be  chosen  to 
help  make  the  laws  of  his  state. 

No  man  ever  had  fewer  advantages  than 
Abraham  Lincoln.  As  a  boy,  he  was  the  poorest 
of  the  poor.  No  rich  friend  held  out  a  helping 
hand.  But  see  what  he  had  already  accomp- 
lished by  pluck,  perseverance,  and  honesty  ! 

He  had  not  had  access  to  many  books,  but  he 
knew  books  better  than  most  men  of  his  age. 
He  knew  the  Bible  by  heart ;  he  was  familiar 
with  Shakespeare  ;  he  could  repeat  nearly  all  the 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  41 

poems  of  Burns  ;  he  knew  much  about  physics 
and  mechanics  ;  he  had  mastered  the  elements 
of  law. 

He  was  very  awkward  and  far  from  handsome, 
but  he  was  so  modest,  so  unselfish  and  kind,  that 
every  one  who  knew  him  liked  him.  He  was  a 
true  gentleman — a  gentleman  at  heart,  if  not  in 
outside  polish. 

And  so,  as  I  have  already  said,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  was  elected  to  the 
state  legislature.  He  served  the  people  so  well 
that  when  his  term  closed,  two  years  later,  they 
sent  him  back  for  another  term. 

The  capital  of  Illinois  had,  up  to  this  time, 
been  at  Vandalia.  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  friends 
now  succeeded  in  having  a  law  passed  to  re- 
move it  to  Springfield.  Springfield  was  nearer 
to  the  centre  of  the  state  ;  it  was  more  conven- 
ient to  everybody,  and  had  other  advantages 
which  Vandalia  did  not  have. 

The  people  of  Springfield  were  so  delighted 
that  they  urged  Mr.  Lincoln  to  come  there  and 
practice  law.  An  older  lawyer,  whose  name  was 


42  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

John  T.  Stuart,  and  who  had  a  good  practice, 
offered  to  take  him  in  partnership  with  him. 

And  so,  in  1837,  Abraham  Lincoln  left  New 
Salem  and  removed  to  Springfield.  He  did  not 
have  much  to  move.  All  the  goods  that  he  had 
in  the  world  were  a  few  clothes,  which  he  car- 
ried in  a  pair  of  saddle-bags,  and  two  or  three 
law  books.  He  had  no  money,  and  he  rode  into 
Springfield  on  a  borrowed  horse. 

He  was  then  twenty-eight  years  old. 

From  that  time  on,  Springfield  was  his  home. 


X. —  POLITICS  AND  MARRIAGE. 

The  next  year  after  his  removal  to  Springfield, 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  to  the  legislature  for  the 
third  time. 

There  were  then,  in  this  country,  two  great 
political  parties,  the  Democrats  and  the  Whigs. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  Whig,  and  he  soon  became 
the  leader  of  his  party  in  the  state.  But  the 
Whigs  were  not  so  strong  as  the  Democrats. 

The  legislature  was  in  session  only  a  few  weeks 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  43 

each  year  ;  and  so  Mr.  Lincoln  could  devote  all 
the  rest  of  the  time  to  the  practice  of  law.  There 
were  many  able  lawyers  in  Illinois  ;  but  Abe 
Lincoln  of  Springfield  soon  made  himself  known 
among  the  best  of  them. 

In  1840,  he  was  again  elected  to  the  legisla- 
ture. This  was  the  year  in  which  General  Wil- 
liam H.  Harrison  was  elected  president  of  the 
United  States.  General  Harrison  was  a  Whig  ; 
and  Mr.  Lincoln's  name  was  on  the  Whig  ticket 
as  a  candidate  for  presidential  elector  in  his 
state. 

The  presidential  campaign  was  one  of  the 
most  exciting  that  had  ever  been  known.  It 
was  called  the  "  log  cabin  "  campaign,  because 
General  Harrison  had  lived  in  a  log  cabin,  and 
his  opponents  had  sneered  at  his  poverty. 

In  the  East  as  well  as  in  the  West,  the  excite- 
ment was  very  great.  In  every  city  and  town 
and  village,  wherever  there  was  a  political  meet- 
ing, a  log  cabin  was  seen.  On  one  side  of  the 
low  door  hung  a  long-handled  gourd  ;  on  the 
pther  side,  a  coon-skin  was  nailed  to  the  logs  ; 


44  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

the  blue  smoke  curled  up  from  the  top  of  the 
stick-and-clay  chimney. 

You  may  believe  that  Abraham  Lincoln  went 
into  this  campaign  with  all  his  heart.  He  trav- 
eled over  a  part  of  the  state,  making  stump- 
speeches  for  his  party. 

One  of  his  ablest  opponents  was  a  young  law- 
yer, not  quite  his  own  age,  whose  name  was 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  In  many  places,  during 
this  campaign,  Lincoln  and  Douglas  met  in  pub- 
lic debate  upon  the  questions  of  the  day.  And 
both  of  them  were  so  shrewd;  so  well  informed, 
and  so  eloquent,  that  those  who  heard  them  were 
unable  to  decide  which  was  the  greater  of  the 
two. 

General  Harrison  was  elected,  but  not  through 
the  help  of  Mr.  Lincoln  ;  for  the  vote  of  Illinois 
that  year  was  for  the  Democratic  candidate. 

In  1842,  when  he  was  thirty-three  years  old, 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Todd,  a 
young  lady  from  Kentucky,  who  had  lately  come 
to  Springfield  on  a  visit. 

For  some  time  after  their  marriage,  Mr.  and 


46  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Mrs.  Lincoln  lived  in  a  hotel  called  the  "  Globe 
Tavern,"  paying  four  dollars  a  week  for  rooms 
and  board.  But,  in  1844,  Mr.  Lincoln  bought  a 
small,  but  comfortable  frame  house,  and  in  this 
they  lived  until  they  went  to  the  White  House, 
seventeen  years  later. 

Although  he  had  been  successful  as  a  young 
lawyer,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  still  a  poor  man.  But 
Mrs.  Lincoln  said  :  "  I  would  rather  have  a  good 
man,  a  man  of  mind,  with  bright  prospects  for 
success  and  power  and  fame,  than  marry  one 
with  all  the  horses  and  houses  and  gold  in  the 
world." 


XI. — CONGRESSMAN   AND   LAWYER. 

In  1846,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  again  elected  to  the 
legislature. 

In  the  following  year  the  people  of  his  district 
chose  him  to  be  their  representative  in  Congress. 
He  took  his  seat  in  December.  He  was  then 
thirty-nine  years  old.  He  was  the  only  Whig 
from  Illinois. 

There  were  many  famous  men  in  Congress  at 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  47 

that  time.  Mr.  Lincoln's  life-long  rival,  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  was  one  of  the  senators  from  Illi- 
nois. He  had  already  served  a  term  or  two  in 
the  House  of  Representatives. 

Daniel  Webster  was  also  in  the  Senate  ;  and 
so  was  John  C.  Calhoun  ;  and  so  was  Jefferson 
Davis. 

Mr.  Lincoln  took  an  active  interest  in  all  the 
subjects  that  came  before  Congress.  He  made 
many  speeches.  But,  perhaps,  the  most  impor- 
tant thing  that  he  did  at  this  time  was  to  propose 
a  bill  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  in  the 
city  of  Washington. 

He  believed  that  slavery  was  unjust  to  the 
slave  and  harmful  to  the  nation.  He  wanted  to 
do  what  he  could  to  keep  it  from  becoming  a 
still  greater  evil.  But  the  bill  was  opposed  so 
strongly  that  it  was  not  even  voted  upon. 

After  the  close  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  term  in  Con- 
gress, he  hoped  that  President  Taylor,  who  was 
a  Whig,  might  appoint  him  to  a  good  office. 
But  in  this  he  was  disappointed. 

And  so,  in   1849,  ne  returned  to  his  home  in 


48  THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Springfield,  and  again  settled  down  to  the  prac- 
tice of  law. 

He  was  then  forty  years  old.  Considering  the 
poverty  of  his  youth,  he  had  done  great  things 
for  himself.  But  he  had  not  done  much  for  his 
country.  Outside  of  his  own  state  his  name  was 
still  unknown. 

His  life  for  the  next  few  years  was  like  that  of 
any  other  successful  lawyer  in  the  newly-settled 
West.  He  had  a  large  practice,  but  his  fees 
were  very  small.  His  income  from  his  profession 
was  seldom  more  than  $2,000  a  year. 

His  habits  were  very  simple.  He  lived  com- 
fortably and  respectably.  In  his  modest  little 
home  there  was  an  air  of  order  and  refinement, 
but  no  show  of  luxury. 

No  matter  where  he  might  go,  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  have  been  known  as  a  Western  man.  He 
was  six  feet  four  inches  in  height.  His  face  was 
very  homely,  but  very  kind. 

He  was  cordial  and  friendly  in  his  manners. 
There  was  something  about  him  which  made 
everybody  feel  that  he  was  a  sincere,  truthful, 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  49 

upright  man.     He  was  known  among  his  neigh- 
bors as  "Honest  Abe  Lincoln." 


XII. — THE  QUESTION  OF  SLAVERY. 

The  great  subject  before  the  country  at  this 
time  was  slavery.  It  had  been  the  cause  of  trouble 
for  many  years. 

In  the  early  settlement  of  the  American  colon- 
ies, slavery  had  been  introduced  through  the  in- 
fluence of  the  English  government.  The  first 
slaves  had  been  brought  to  Virginia  nearly  240 
years  before  the  time  of  which  I  am  telling  you. 

Many  people  saw  from  the  beginning  that  it 
was  an  evil  which  would  at  some  distant  day 
bring  disaster  upon  the  country.  In  1772,  the 
people  of  Virginia  petitioned  the  king  of  Eng- 
land to  put  a  stop  to  the  bringing  of  slaves  from 
Africa  into  that  colony.  But  the  petition  was 
rejected  ;  and  the  king  forbade  them  to  speak  of 
the  matter  any  more. 

Washington,  Jefferson,  and  other  founders  of 
our  nation  looked  upon  slavery  as  an  evil.  They 


5O  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

hoped  that  the  time  might  come  when  it  would 
be  done'  away  with  ;  for  they  knew  that  the 
country  would  prosper  better  without  it. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  slavery  was  per- 
mitted in  all  the  states.  But  it  was  gradually 
abolished,  first  in  Pennsylvania  and  then  in  the 
New  England  states,  and  afterwards  in  New  York. 

In  1787,  a  law  was  passed  by  Congress  declar- 
ing that  there  should  be  no  slavery  in  the  terri- 
tory northwest  of  the  river  Ohio.  This  was  the 
territory  from  which  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  were  formed  ; 
and  so,  of  course,  these  states  were  free  states 
from  the  beginning. 

The  great  industry  of  the  South  was  cotton- 
raising.  The  people  of  the  Southern  states 
claimed  that  slavery  was  necessary,  because  only 
negro  slaves  could  do  the  work  required  on  the 
big  cotton  plantations.  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana  were  admit- 
ted, one  by  one,  into  the  Union ;  and  all  were 
slave  states. 

In  1821,  Missouri  applied  for  admission  into  the 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  5! 

Union.  The  South  wanted  slavery  in  this  state 
also,  but  the  North  objected.  There  were  many 
hot  debates  in  Congress  over  this  question.  At 
last,  through  the  influence  of  Henry  Clay,  the 
dispute  was  settled  by  what  has  since  been  known 
as  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  provided  that  Mis- 
souri should  be  a  slave  state  ;  this  was  to  satisfy 
the  South.  On  the  other  hand,  it  declared  that 
all  the  western  territory  north  of  the  line  which 
formed  the  southern  boundary  of  Missouri, 
should  forever  be  free  ;  this  was  to  appease  the 
North. 

But  the  cotton  planters  of  the  South  grew  more 
wealthy  by  the  labor  of  their  slaves.  More  ter- 
ritory was  needed  for  the  extension  of  slavery. 
Texas  joined  the  United  States  and  became  a 
slave  state. 

Then  followed  a  war  with  Mexico  ;  and  Cali- 
fornia, New  Mexico  and  Utah  were  taken  from 
that  country.  Should  slavery  be  allowed  in 
these  new  territories  also  ? 

At  this  time  a  new  political  party  was  formed. 


52  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

It  was  called  the  "  Free  Soil  Party,"  and  the 
principle  for  which  it  contended  was  this  :  "No 
more  slave  states  and  no  slave  territory'' 

This  party  was  not  very  strong  at  first,  but 
soon  large  numbers  of  Whigs  and  many  northern 
Democrats,  who  did  not  believe  in  the  extension 
of  slavery,  began  to  join  it. 

Although  the  Whig  party  refused  to  take  any 
position  against  the  extension  of  slavery,  there 
were  many  anti-slavery  Whigs  who  still  remained 
with  it  and  voted  the  Whig  ticket — and  one  of 
these  men  was  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  contest  between  freedom  and  slavery  be- 
came more  fierce  every  day.  At  last  another 
compromise  was  proposed  by  Henry  Clay. 

This  compromise  provided  that  California 
should  be  admitted  as  a  free  state  ;  that  slavery 
should  not  be  prohibited  in  New  Mexico  and 
Utah  ;  that  there  should  be  no  more  markets  for 
slaves  in  the  District  of  Columbia;  and  that  a 
new  and  very  strict  fugitive-slave  law  should  be 
passed. 

This  compromise   is  called  the  "  Compromise 


THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  53 

of  1850."  It  was  in  support  of  these  measures 
that  Daniel  Webster  made  his  last  great  speech. 

It  was  hoped  by  Webster  and  Clay  that  the 
Compromise  of  1850  would  put  an  end  to  the 
agitation  about  slavery.  "  Now  we  shall  have 
peace/'  they  said.  But  the  agitation  became 
stronger  and  stronger,  and  peace  seemed  farther 
away  *than  ever  before. 

In  1854,  a  bill  was  passed  by  Congress  to  or- 
ganize the  territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska. 
This  bill  provided  that  the  Missouri  Compromise 
should  be  repealed,  and  that  the  question  of 
slavery  in  these  territories  should  be  decided  by 
the  people  living  in  them. 

The  bill  was  passed  through  the  influence  of 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  of  Illinois.  There  was  now 
no  bar  to  the  extension  of  slavery  into  any  of 
the  territories  save  that  of  public  opinion. 

The  excitement  all  over  the  North  was  very 
great.  In  Kansas  there  was  actual  war  between 
those  who  favored  slavery  and  those  who  op- 
posed it.  Thinking  men  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try saw  that  a  great  crisis  was  at  hand. 


54  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

XIII.' — LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS. 

It  was  then  that  Abraham  Lincoln  came  for- 
ward as  the  champion  of  freedom. 

Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  a  candidate  for  re- 
election to  the  Senate,  and  he  found  it  necessary 
to  defend  himself  before  the  people  of  his  state 
for  the  part  he  had  taken  in  repealing  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise.  He  went  from  one  city  to 
another,  making  speeches ;  and  at  each  place 
Abraham  Lincoln  met  him  in  joint  debate. 

"  I  do  not  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  into 
or  out  of  the  territories,"  said  Mr.  Douglas. 
"  The  question  of  slavery  is  one  of  climate. 
Wherever  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the  inhabitants 
of  a  territory  to  have  slave  property,  there  a 
slave  law  will  be  enacted." 

But  Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  "  The  men  who 
signed  the  Declaration  of  Independence  said 
that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  are  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights — 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  .  .  . 
I  beseech  you,  do  not  destroy  that  immortal  em- 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  55 

blem  of  humanity,  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence." 

At  last,  Mr.  Douglas  felt  that  he  was  beaten. 
He  proposed  that  both  should  go  home,  and  that 
there  should  be  no  more  joint  discussions.  Mr. 
Lincoln  agreed  to  this  ;  but  the  words  which 
he  had  spoken  sank  deep  into  the  hearts  of 
those  who  heard  them. 

The  speeches  of  Lincoln  and  Douglas  were 
printed  in  a  book.  People  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  read  them.  They  had  heard  much  about 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  He  was  called  "  The  Lit- 
tle Giant."  He  had  long  been  famous  among 
the  politicians  of  the  country.  It  was  believed 
that  he  would  be  the  next  President  of  the 
United  States. 

But  who  was  this  man  Lincoln,  who  had  so 
bravely  vanquished  the  Little  Giant  ?  He  was 
called  "  Honest  Abe."  There  were  few  people 
outside  of  his  state  who  had  ever  heard  of  him 
before. 

Mr.  Douglas  returned  to  his  seat  in  the  United 
States  Senate.  Mr.  Lincoln  became  the  acknowl- 


56  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

edged  leader  of  the  forces  opposed  to  the  exten- 
sion of  slavery. 

In  May,  1856,  a  convention  of  the  people  of 
Illinois  was  held  in  Bloomington,  Illinois.  It 
met  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  new  political 
party,  the  chief  object  and  aim  of  which  should 
be  to  oppose  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the 
territories. 

Mr.  Lincoln  made  a  speech  to  the  members  of 
this  convention.  It  was  one  of  the  greatest 
speeches  ever  heard  in  this  country.  "Again 
and  again,  during  the  delivery,  the  audience 
sprang  to  their  feet,  and,  by  long- continued 
cheers,  expressed  how  deeply  the  speaker  had 
roused  them." 

And  so  the  new  party  was  organized.  It  was 
composed  of  the  men  who  had  formed  the  old 
Free  Soil  Party,  together  with  such  Whigs  and 
Democrats  as  were  opposed  to  the  further  growth 
of  the  slave  power.  But  the  greater  number  of 
its  members  were  Whigs.  This  new  party  was 
called  The  Republican  Party. 

In  June,  the  Republican  Party  held  a  national 


THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  57 

convention  at  Philadelphia,  and  nominated  John 
C.  Fremont  for  President.  But  the  party  was 
not  strong  enough  to  carry  the  election  that  year. 

In  that  same  month  the  Democrats  held  a  con- 
vention at  Cincinnati.  Every  effort  was  made 
to  nominate  Stephen  A.  Douglas  for  President. 
But  he  was  beaten  in  his  own  party,  on  account 
of  the  action  which  he  had  taken  in  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise. 

James  Buchanan  was  nominated  in  his  stead, 
and,  in  November,  was  elected. 

And  so  the  conflict  went  on. 

In  the  year  1858  there  was  another  series  of 
joint  debates  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas. 
Both  were  candidates  for  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate. Their  speeches  were  among  the  most  re- 
markable ever  delivered  in  any  country. 

Lincoln  spoke  for  liberty  and  justice.  Doug- 
las's speeches  were  full  of  fire  and  patriotism. 
He  hoped  to  be  elected  President  in  1860.  In  the 
end,  it  was  generally  acknowledged  that  Lincoln 
had  made  the  best  arguments.  But  Douglas  was 
re-elected  to  the  Senate. 


58  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


XIV. — PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

In  1860  there  were  four  candidates  for  the 
presidency. 

The  great  Democratic  Party  was  divided  into 
two  branches.  One  branch  nominated  Stephen 
A.  Douglas.  The  other  branch,  which  included 
the  larger  number  of  the  slave-owners  of  the 
South,  nominated  John  C.  Breckinridge,  of  Ken- 
tucky. 

The  remnant  of  the  old  Whig  Party,  now 
called  the  "  Union  Party,"  nominated  John  Bell, 
of  Tennessee. 

The  Republican  Party  nominated  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

In  November  came  the  election,  and  a  major- 
ity of  all  the  electors  chosen  were  for  Lincoln. 

The  people  of  the  cotton-growing  states  be- 
lieved that,  by  this  election,  the  Northern  people 
intended  to  deprive  them  of  their  rights.  They 
believed  that  the  anti-slavery  people  intended  to 
do  much  more  than  prevent  the  extension  of 
slavery.  They  believed  that  the  abolitionists 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  59 

were  bent  upon  passing  laws  to  deprive  them  of 
their  slaves. 

Wild  rumors  were  circulated  concerning  the 
designs  which  the  "  Black  Republicans,"  as  they 
were  called,  had  formed  for  their  coercion  and 
oppression.  They  declared  that  they  would 
never  submit. 

And  so,  in  December,  the  people  of  South  Car- 
olina met  in  convention,  and  declared  that  that 
state  had  seceded  from  the  Union — that  they 
would  no  longer  be  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
One  by  one,  six  other  states  followed  ;  and  they 
united  to  form  a  new  government,  called  the 
Confederate  States  of  America. 

It  had  long  been  held  by  the  men  of  the  South 
that  a  state  had  the  right  to  withdraw  from  the 
Union  at  any  time.  This  was  called  the  doc- 
trine of  States'  Rights. 

The  Confederate  States  at  once  chose  Jeffer- 
son Davis  for  their  President,  and  declared  them- 
selves free  and  independent. 

In  February,  Mr.  Lincoln  went  to  Washington 
to  be  inaugurated.  His  enemies  openly  boasted 


60  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

that  he  should  never  reach  that  city  alive  ;  and 
a  plot  was  formed  to  kill  him  on  his  passage 
through  Baltimore.  But  he  took  an  earlier  train 
than  the  one  appointed,  and  arrived  at  the  capital 
in  safety. 

On  the  4th  of  March  he  was  inaugurated.  In 
his  address  at  that  time  he  said:  "In  your 
hands,  my  dissatisfied  countrymen,  and  not  in 
mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  Your 
government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have 
no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggres- 
sors. You  have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to 
destroy  the  government ;  while  I  shall  have  the 
most  solemn  one  to  protect  and  defend  it." 

The  Confederate  States  demanded  that  the 
government  should  give  up  all  the  forts,  arsenals, 
and  public  property  within  their  limits.  This, 
President  Lincoln  refused  to  do.  He  said  that 
he  could  not  admit  that  these  states  had  with- 
drawn from  the  Union,  or  that  they  could  with- 
draw without  the  consent  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  given  in  a  national  convention. 

And  so,  in  April,  the  Confederate  guns  were 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  6  I 

turned  upon  Fort  Sumter  in  Charleston  harbor, 
and  the  war  was  begun.  President  Lincoln 
issued  a  call  for  75,000  men  to  serve  in  the  army 
for  three  months  ;  and  both  parties  prepared  for 
the  great  contest. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  give  a  history  of  that  ter- 
rible war  of  four  years.  The  question  of  slavery 
was  now  a  secondary  one.  The  men  of  one  party 
were  determined,  at  whatever  hazard,  to  preserve 
the  Union.  The  men  of  the  other  party  fought  to 
defend  their  doctrine  of  States'  Rights,  and  to 
set  up  an  independent  government  of  their  own. 

President  Lincoln  was  urged  to  use  his  power 
and  declare  all  the  slaves  free.  He  answered  : 

"  My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union, 
and  not  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery. 

"  If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing 
any  slave,  I  would  do  it.  If  I  could  save  it  by 
freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it.  If  I  could 
save  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone, 
I  would  also  do  that." 

At  last,  however,  when  he  saw  that  the  success 
of  the  Union  arms  depended  upon  his  freeing 


62  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

the  slaves,  he  decided  to  do  so.  On  the  ist  of 
January,  1863,  he  issued  a  proclamation  declaring 
that  the  slaves,  in  all  the  states  or  parts  of  states 
then  in  rebellion,  should  be  free. 

By  this  proclamation,  more  than  three  millions 
of  colored  people  were  given  their  freedom. 

But  the  war  still  went  on.  It  reached  a  turn- 
ing point,  however,  at  the  battle  of  Gettysburg, 
in  July,  that  same  year.  From  that  time  the 
cause  of  the  Confederate  States  was  on  the  wane. 
Little  by  little  the  patriots,  who  were  struggling 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  prevailed. 


XIV. — THE  END  OF  A  GREAT  LIFE. 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  first  term,  he  was 
again  elected  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  war  was  still  going  on,  but  the  Union  arms 
were  now  everywhere  victorious. 

His  second  inaugural  address  was  very  short. 
He  did  not  boast  of  any  of  his  achievements  ; 
he  did  not  rejoice  over  the  defeat  of  his  enemies. 
But  he  said : 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  63 

"  With  malice  toward  none  ;  with  charity  for 
all ;  with  firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to 
see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work 
we  are  in  ;  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds  ;  to 
care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle, 
and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan — to  do  all 
which  may  achieve  and  cherigh  a  just  and  last- 
ing peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  na- 
tions." 

Five  weeks  after  that,  on  the  gth  of  April, 
1865,  the  Confederate  army  surrendered,  and  the 
war  was  at  an  end. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  work  was  done. 

The  1 4th  of  April  was  Good  Friday.  On  the 
evening  of  that  day,  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  Mrs.  Lin- 
coln and  two  or  three  friends,  visited  Ford's 
Theatre  in  Washington. 

At  a  few  minutes  past  10  o'clock,  an  actor 
whose  name  was  John  Wilkes  Booth,  came  into 
the  box  where  Mr.  Lincoln  sat.  No  one  saw 
him  enter.  He  pointed  a  pistol  at  the  President's 
head,  and  fired.  He  leaped  down  upon  the 
stage,  shouting  "Sic  semper  tyrannus !  The 


64  THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

South  is  avenged  !  "  Then  he  ran  behind  the 
scenes  and  out  by  the  stage  door. 

The  President  fell  forward.  His  eyes  closed. 
He  neither  saw,  nor  heard,  nor  felt  anything  that 
was  taking  place.  Kind  arms  carried  him  to  a 
private  house  not  far  away. 

At  twenty  minutes  past  seven  o'clock  the  next 
morning,  those  who  watched  beside  him  gave 
out  the  mournful  news  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  dead. 

He  was  fifty-six  years  old. 

The  whole  nation  wept  for  him.  In  the  South 
as  well  as  in  the  North,  the  people  bowed  them- 
selves in  grief.  Heartfelt  tributes  of  sorrow 
came  from  other  lands  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Never,  before  nor  since,  has  there  been  such  unr- 
versal  mourning. 

Such  is  the  story  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In  the 
history  of  the  world,  there  is  no  story  more  full 
of  lessons  of  perseverance,  of  patience,  of  honor, 
of  true  nobility  of  purpose.  Among  the  great 
men  of  all  time,  there  has  been  no  one  more  truly 
great  than  he. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBAN* 

973.7L63BB19S  C001 

THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  FOR  YOUNG  R 


0112031783977 


